Grandma's Cookie Bake!

So when my mom was little my great grandma would do a cookie bake every year around Christmas. My mom would always say those were some of her fondest christmas memories, so when us kids were born my grandma decided that she would continue the tradition. So every year we'd head over to grandmas and start baking cookies!! We would bake and decorate for hours! And grandma didn't ever get mad at us for the crazy mess we would make. I remember my cousin Crystal and I sitting at that table for hours just trying to make the most beautiful cookies. One of the best things we would get to do was grandma would trace our hand onto dough and we would get to decorate a cookie of our own hand. Then after hours of decorating we'd all get ready for bed and head downstairs where we would watch christmas movies all night long. It was so much fun! Even though the family has gotten very large my grandma still does a cookie bake every year! Though very few still sleep over it is such a blast to all get together, hang out and eat cookies! I asked my grandma this year about how many cookies she has to make, and her reply was about 300! WOW! What a lot of work she goes to! But I'm so glad she does, Mae has been able to go the last couple of years and I love that she is getting those same traditions that I cherish from my childhood, and even though she doesn't really get it yet I know she'll love to look back at the pictures and see what great times those traditions are!